THE USE OF INSULTS IN GHANAIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS By EMMANUEL AMO OFORI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2015 1 © 2015 Emmanuel Amo Ofori 2 To my mother, siblings, wife and children 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Ebenezer, this is how far the Lord has brought me! I am extremely grateful to the Almighty God for giving me the strength and the ideas to come out with this dissertation, glory be unto His Holy name, Amen! I want to express my profound gratitude to my chair and co-chair, Professor Diana Boxer and Professor Fiona McLaughlin for their immense contribution to the realization of this dream (dissertation). I am indebted to them for their suggestions, comments, encouragement, inspiration, motivation and criticism in making this dissertation a reality. I also want to thank my committee member, Professor James Essegbey for his direction and guidance from the inception of this work until the end. I am really grateful to him for his contribution and encouragement in making this dissertation a rewarding learning experience. God richly bless you. To my external member, Professor Daniel Smith, I say thank you very much for you comments, directions and feedback. I am extremely grateful to my wife, Henrietta Gyamaa Ofori and my two children, Adom Akua Addai Ofori and Aseda Kwadwo Ofori-Atta for their love, sacrifice and support, without them there was no way this work could have ever been achieved. To my entire family, thank you for your unwavering support for me from childhood up to this time, especially my sweet mother, Madam Margaret Adwoa Addai for financing my education as a single mother, God richly bless you mum, your effort will never be in vain. To my four sisters, Patricia Ofori Serwaa, Patience Ofori-Atta, Cynthia Ofori-Atta and Diana Ofori Pokuaa, I thank you all for you assistance, encouragement and prayers. I would like to extend a hand of gratitude to Afia Pokuaa (Vim Lady), Adom FM, Accra, Ghana and Kwasi Boateng for their assistance in the gathering of my data 4 without it I couldn’t have come out with this dissertation. They were readily available whenever I called on them. Finally, I thank my District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, USA, INC, Samuel Koomson, the immediate past District Pastor, Joseph Adarkwa, Elders Karl Badu, Samuel Odame, Stephen Frimpong, Daniel Abakah, Emmanuel Anaafi, Eric Boateng, Samuel Mamfo for their prayers and support in my four year stay in Florida. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 9 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 11 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 15 1.1 Motivations and Background of the Study ......................................................... 15 1.2 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................ 18 1.3 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 19 1.4 The Genre of Insult ........................................................................................... 20 1.5 Literature Review: Ethnography of Insults in Ghana ......................................... 22 1.6 Tracing Political Discourse in the Media; the Road to Freedom of Speech in Ghana .................................................................................................................. 32 1.7 Political Parties in Ghana .................................................................................. 36 1.7.1 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) ................................................................ 36 1.7.2 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) .............................................. 37 1.8 The Linguistic Situation in Ghana ..................................................................... 38 1.8.1 Akan ........................................................................................................ 38 1.8.2 English ..................................................................................................... 41 1.9 Dissertation Layout ........................................................................................... 41 2 METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................ 45 2.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 45 2.2 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 45 2.3 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................... 48 2.3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis ...................................................................... 48 2.3.2 Media Discourse Analysis ....................................................................... 53 2.3.3 Approaches in Critical Discourse Analysis .............................................. 59 2.3.3.1 Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) ............................. 59 2.3.3.2 Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach ............................................. 61 2.3.3.3 Fairclough’s Social-discoursal Approach ....................................... 64 2.3.4 Model of analysis ..................................................................................... 67 2.3.4.1 Lexicalization and predication ........................................................ 68 2.3.4.2 Presupposition ............................................................................... 70 2.3.4.3 Metaphor/simile .............................................................................. 72 6 2.3.4.4 Proverbs ......................................................................................... 74 2.3.4.5 Verbal process ............................................................................... 77 2.3.4.6 Intertextuality .................................................................................. 79 2.3.4.7 Topics ............................................................................................ 82 2.4 Critical Terms in CDA ....................................................................................... 83 2.4.1 Power ...................................................................................................... 83 2.4.2 Ideology ................................................................................................... 85 2.4.3 Voice ....................................................................................................... 87 2.5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 87 3 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 91 3.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 91 3.2 Lexicalization and Predication .......................................................................... 91 3.2.1 Lexicalization and predication used by ordinary citizens ......................... 91 3.2.1.1 Infantalization of politicians ............................................................ 92 3.2.1.2 Animalization of politicians ............................................................. 99 3.2.1.3 Insanity and mental health of politicians....................................... 105 3.2.1.4 Innocuous insults ......................................................................... 108 3.2.2 Lexicalization and predication used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers 109 3.3 Presupposition ................................................................................................ 117 3.3.1 Presupposition used by ordinary citizens .............................................. 117 3.3.2 Presuppositions used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers ..................... 119 3.4 Metaphor/simile .............................................................................................. 123 3.5 Proverbs ......................................................................................................... 127 3.6 Verbal process ................................................................................................ 130 3.7 Summary ........................................................................................................ 131 4 DISCURSIVE PRACTICE ANALYSIS .................................................................. 153 4.1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 153 4.2 Intertextuality .................................................................................................. 153 4.2.1 Ordinary Citizens’ Intertextuality ............................................................ 154 4.2.2 Pro-NPP and NDC newspapers intertextuality